50 years after first Masters, Palmer leaves more than his golf

April 02, 2008

ORLANDO, Fla. — There are some details that even time cannot rob from Arnold Palmer’s memory.

“I was in a two-door Ford with a hard top,” he said about his first trip down Magnolia Lane. “My wife was with me, and we were pulling a trailer. I had just gone to the club to register and get started, and it was very nice. Actually, it was a great relief to get to Augusta. It was something I had looked forward to with great expectations all my life.”

The Masters has been part of his life as long as he can remember.

The son of a golf course superintendent, Palmer can recall reading about the Masters as a boy, lingering over the iconic names of Bobby Jones, Byron Nelson and Jimmy Demaret. In college, and there was rarely a conversation about golf at Wake Forest that didn’t mention Augusta National.

Can he imagine what his life would be like without the Masters?

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“No,” Palmer said dismissively. “Oh, I suppose I have thought about that. I think I was raised in a Masters environment. The Masters was always there. It was a way of life. Everything about it was magical.”

Palmer returns this year to celebrate the 50th anniversary of his first Masters victory, which brought golf to the masses and set in motion a relationship unlike any other between a golfer and a major championship.

Jack Nicklaus won more Masters titles. Tiger Woods might win more than both of them combined.

But it was Palmer who turned the faces behind the ropes into friends. It was Palmer who created a bond with Augusta National and the Masters that is as majestic as the Georgia pines that frame the fairways.

“I grew up after the Palmer era, but I’ve seen Arnold walk around Augusta, and I’ve seen the way fans accept him and the way members embrace him,” Stewart Cink. “It’s like Arnold was one of their own before he won the Masters. They love him not for being a champion, but because he’s Arnold Palmer.”

His impact spans generations.

Palmer sought out Sean O’Hair at Bay Hill a week after the 25-year-old won at Innisbrook, and O’Hair was so much in awe that he didn’t remember a word Palmer said to him. Hunter Mahan recalls seeing Palmer at Augusta National for the first time in 2003, a moment that turned a black-and-white image into HDTV.

“He’s a living legend, like Henry Aaron, Wilt Chamberlain,” Mahan said. “You seen them play on film, but only when they come out can you truly see the impact they have, how much people enjoy them and what they’ve done for the game.”

Palmer stopped playing the Masters in 2004 after a record 50 straight appearances, and even now, he cannot separate himself from the club or the tournament. He might play in the Par 3 Tournament. He will hit the ceremonial tee shot Thursday morning, a highlight for thousands of fans who have watched him for a half-century.

And then he will retire to the clubhouse and reflect on memories that remain vivid.

“The only time it really seems like a long time is when I walk out on the first tee and hit a drive,” he said. “Then I know it’s 50 years.”

Strange as it might seem now, some thought Palmer could never win at Augusta National with his hard, corkscrew swing that produced a low, boring ball flight. Palmer loves to tell the story of playing poorly in a practice-round match with Dow Finsterwald against Ben Hogan and Jack Burke Jr., after which he heard Hogan say, “How the hell did Palmer get an invitation to the Masters?”

“I remember it running in my ears constantly — the fact that I didn’t hit the golf ball the way you have to hit it to win at Augusta,” Palmer said. “I always hit the ball low and on the line. Very rarely did I ever hit it up in the air like Jack does or some of the players that were successful at Augusta. And that made my determination to win Augusta even more.”

His victory 50 years ago is best remembered for a ruling on the 12th green.

Palmer had a one-shot lead when his tee shot plugged between the green and the back bunker. He was denied relief for an embedded ball, then decided to play two balls under appeal.

With the first, he nudged it out of the pitch mark, chipped onto the green and took two putts for a 5. He then dropped another ball, chipped on and made par. Not until he reached the 15th hole did the Masters committee inform him his par would count.

He finished at 284, then waited nervously for Doug Ford and Fred Haskins to finish, both finishing one shot behind.

Three more Masters titles followed — Palmer’s famous birdie-birdie charge to win in 1960, a playoff victory over Gary Player and Finsterwald in 1962, and his six-shot romp over Nicklaus and Dave Marr in 1964.

That was his seventh, and final major championship.

Maybe there could have been more if he wasn’t so aggressive, so exciting. He made a spectacular escape at Royal Birkdale in 1961 when he won his first British Open. He endured a spectacular collapse at The Olympic Club in 1966 when he let a U.S. Open get away from him.